Google News to publish agencies' copy
Jemima Kiss — MediaGuardian.co.uk — Google today announced that it had struck deals with four major international news agencies that will see its Google News site become a publisher of their news stories. — From 6pm UK time today …
Context & Ripple Effects
Google News has spent 2007 repositioning itself from headline aggregator to host: after deals with individual news websites in May, Search Engine Land reported on August 31 that wire stories were being hosted directly on Google News. This announcement makes the shift official policy — four major international news agencies will see their copy published on the site from 6pm UK time today.
The move matters because Google News until now sent readers onward to publisher pages; hosting agency text ends that click-through for wire content. Coming amid Google's confirmed run of revenue growth and its status as the world's most popular search engine, it gives the wires a direct channel to audiences their newspaper clients previously monopolised.
First-order effects
- Readers searching Google News can now read full agency stories without visiting a newspaper site, cutting click-through traffic for outlets that license the same wire copy.
- The four unnamed agencies gain direct distribution through Google's audience, converting them from wholesalers of syndicated text into publishers in their own right.
Second-order effects
- Newspapers paying agency subscription fees face disintermediation: the wire copy they license to draw readers is now free one click away on Google, weakening the case for print-era syndication economics.
- Other agencies and search rivals must now choose between holding out for licensing terms or following Google's direct-hosting model, forcing negotiations over who controls wire content online.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, platform-to-originator licensing replaces syndication-through-publishers as the default structure for wire content — a template for how search engines negotiate compensation with content creators generally.
The trend: Search platforms are evolving from linking intermediaries into direct hosts and licensors of original news content, with agencies rather than publishers becoming the negotiation partner.